Learning at Dartington
We offer a new model for transformative learning at our two higher education faculties, Schumacher College and Dartington Arts School. Our degree programmes are designed to suit the complexities of modern life, allowing you to live where you live and work where you work whilst studying the subject you are passionate about as a member of our wide-reaching learning community.
At Dartington Trust, learning is guided by three principles:
- embracing the new low-residency, tech-supported more accessible learning structure;
- rediscovering an ethos of learning by doing that has been at the heart of Schumacher College for the past 30 years;
- taking inspiration from ancient Vispassna wisdom that put forward 10 or 21 day learning phases as a basis for transformational learning.
Wherever you are in the world, we invite you to join us! We are currently accepting applications for all our arts and ecological degrees over the next year. Our short course programme has a range of innovative online and residential experiences too in a host of enriching subjects, including arts, craft, philosphy, creative writing, ecology and wellbeing.
Are you a current student on one of our postgraduate courses? Click here for our Resources for Students.
Higher Education
Schumacher College
Schumacher College is an internationally-respected college for ecological studies offering masters programmes, short courses and horticulture residencies. We focus on interactive and experiential education to develop the practical skills and strategic thinking you’ll need to in your search for solutions to the challenges of climate change and social inequality.
Image credit: Craig Whyte
Dartington Arts School
Dartington Arts School draws on the unique cultural heritage of the Dartington estate and its extraordinary location to provide a dynamic and responsive context for contemporary study. We offer a dynamic learning community where students and tutors learn in dialogue with each other and with the place itself. We offer learning on a small, friendly scale with intensity and rigour.
Short courses
Our short course programme offers inspiring, transformative experiences in a truly stunning location. We attract exceptional tutors to help guide your personal development, understanding and practical skills, in the fields of arts, craft, ecology, wellbeing and beyond.
Schumacher College: Ecology & Wellbeing Courses
Arts and Craft Courses
They beautifully complement our Craft Revolution programme, in collaboration with over 50 makers from across the South West and beyond. Courses in carpentry, furniture, textiles, ceramics, printmaking, bookbinding and artisan cookery run throughout the year.
Summer School & Festival
Every year, Dartington Music Summer School & Festival delivers four weeks of shared music making, learning and listening, from early music to classical to jazz.
By day, classes and courses covering a range of music take place; by night an extensive concert programme, featuring internationally renowned performers, lights up the Dartington estate.
Events & more
Learning is the beating heart of our year-round programme of events, which spans genres from film to craft to exhibitions.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, much of our events programme (including our Barn Cinema) is taking a break. Instead, we’re running a virtual programme, which includes the first ever online editions of our long-running Earth Talks. Click here for all the latest events.
You can also book courses run in partnership with some of our tenants on the estate. These include:
art.earth
art.earth grew out of the Language, Landscape & the Sublime symposium which took place in June 2016 at Dartington Trust and Sharpham House, and exists as a space for thought, for making, for collaboration and for conversation.
art.earth celebrates and supports artists who look outward. This might mean quite explicitly talking about environmental or ecological issues, or it might mean a much broader sense of the ecological: something that is open, enquiring, caring, and considerate of the world (people and places) it inhabits.
Soundart Radio 102.5 FM
Soundart Radio is an independent, non-commercial, licensed community radio station based on the Dartington estate and reaching audiences locally, nationally and internationally.
They run a regular series of courses, often for young people, providing opportunities to learn more about radio broadcasting.